‘The Flash’ Producer Says Film Was Never at Risk of Being Shelved Due to Ezra Miller’s History: ‘That Was Never Real’

Amy Schumer has revealed the real reason why she left the Barbie movie – and it’s not what they told us at the time. While playing Plead the Fifth on “Watch What Happens Live,” the comedian admitted that she didn’t drop out due to scheduling conflicts, but creative differences.“I think it was scheduling conflicts,” Schumer said. “That’s what we said.

Following the release of his Paramount/eOne fantasy pic Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves to critical acclaim and over $200M at the WW box office, Golden Globe winner Hugh Grant has entered talks to star in Heretic, a new horror film to be directed for A24 by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who also penned the script.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Long before Margot Robbie boarded the “Barbie” movie and got Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach to write the screenplay, it was Amy Schumer who was set to headline the project. Back in 2016, Sony Pictures had the rights to “Barbie” and cast Schumer to star in a movie based on an original idea and screenplay by Hilary Winston. Schumer and her sister, Kim Caramele, planned rewrites, but the comedian exited the movie less than a year later. “Sadly, I’m no longer able to commit to Barbie due to scheduling conflicts,” the actor said in a statement to Variety at the time. “The film has so much promise, and Sony and Mattel have been great partners. I’m bummed, but look forward to seeing Barbie on the big screen.”

Ben Croll This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival looks to break records with a wider international reach and greater studio participation than ever before. Already set to overtake last year’s attendance, the French lakeside fest,  runs June 11-17 and had run up 13,300 guests by late May — among them a U.S. delegation more than 700 strong.   “[This year marks] the most important U.S. presence ever at Annecy,” says artistic director Marcel Jean. “We’re taking in historical players such as Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar who will still come, as well as global platforms such as Netflix, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. And [we’re welcoming] a number of big titles.” 

The day after New York-based pickets were canceled for the week because of smoke, the gathering at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles was a bit smaller on Thursday, with less than 50 people gathering in support of the WGA strike.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director What superhero fatigue? “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” blasted past projections and opened to a huge $120 million. The animated multiverse epic has already earned over $230 million worldwide in less than a week of release. With the “Spider-Verse” sequel off to a massive start and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” about to cross $800 million worldwide, it appears comic book movies are back on track after box office disappointments like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.” In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, “Spider-Verse” producers and writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller said “superhero fatigue” is not to blame for certain comic book movies falling below expectations.

Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby has landed another series order at HBO – a crime drama starring Mark Ruffalo.

Japanese genre auteur Takashi Miike is notorious for taking his cinema to extreme limits, whether that’s in terms of violence or sexual depravity. And over a career that spans three decades, he’s directed some classics: “Audition,” “Ichi The Killer,” the “Dead Or Alive” trilogy, and “Hara-Kiri,” just to name a few.

In person screen testing for the roles of Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane in the upcoming new film, Superman: Legacy, are expected to be happening in the next few weeks, and there are allegedly 3 frontrunners for each of the two leading roles.

EXCLUSIVE: Following months of going through dozens of audition tapes, Warner Bros and DC Films look to be getting closer to finding the stars of their Superman: Legacy movie as a second round of testing looks to be imminent.

In the wake of world premiering in Cannes to lackluster film reviews at 50% Rotten, Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is currently looking at a $60M+ domestic opening.

In fifteen days, Sasha Calle makes her big screen debut as Supergirl in Andy Muschietti‘s long-awaited “The Flash.” And EW reports that, if the actress has her way, her time as the superheroine won’t be a one-off. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll reprise the role in “Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow” in the new DCU.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The name Preston Mutanga might not ring a bell, but anyone who has contributed to the $235 million and counting box office haul for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has seen his work on the big screen. Mutanga is a 14-year-old from Toronto, Canada, who landed a role as an animator on “Across the Spider-Verse” after he recreated the film’s trailer shot-for-shot in the style of LEGO blocks and left producers Chris Lord and Phil Miller dazzled (via The New York Times). Not too bad for your industry debut. Mutanga uploaded his LEGO remake of the “Across the Spider-Verse” trailer to Twitter on Jan. 2 (see the post below). Lord and Miller, both active Twitter users, caught wind of the clip and were impressed — the directors know a thing or two about crafting LEGO-inspired sequences as the directors of 2014’s “The LEGO Movie.” When the team decided they wanted a scene in “Across the Spider-Verse” set in a LEGO universe, they decided to reach out to Mutanga.

The group of executives who are leading CNN on an interim basis made their first comments to staffers on Thursday, vowing to make “this period as smooth as possible.”

James Gunn and Peter Safran have been given the keys to the newly formed DC Studios. And the duo has already assembling the first wave of theatrical projects for the rebooted DCU, with Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” (currently deep in the casting process) leading the charge.

Chris Licht released a statement following his exit from CNN on Wednesday.

Chris Licht’s ouster as CEO at CNN, Joe Scarborough argued that Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav should have kept Licht on for the full term of his two-year-contract. “Zaslav gave Chris two years; I wish Chris had been given the two years Zaslav promised him,” Scarborough told The New York Times.

The day that SAG-AFTRA began its talks with Hollywood studios over its own film and TV contract with a strike authorization in hand, picketing Writers Guild members on Wednesday hit up Disney and Warner Bros in Burbank.

Chris Licht has broken his silence following his abrupt departure as CEO and Global Chairman of CNN Wednesday morning, calling his tenure “exciting but incredibly challenging.”“This was an exciting but incredibly challenging assignment, and I learned a lot over the past 13 months,” Licht said in a statement to media. “I’ve been lucky enough to have had a successful, fulfilling career, and I look forward to my next chapter.”Licht’s statement comes hours the former CEO’s ouster was announced by Warner Bros.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director It turns out The Terminator is no match for James Cameron. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new Netflix documentary “Arnold,” the actor and Cameron remembered clashing over the iconic “I’ll be back” line from 1984’s “The Terminator” (via Insider). “Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we’re doing this police station scene. The line is, ‘I’ll come back.’ It wasn’t meant to be like a big moment at all,” said Cameron, who co-wrote “The Terminator” with Gale Anne Hurd. “It was literally meant to be, on its face, ‘No problem, I’ll come back.’ For some reason, Arnold didn’t say, ‘I’ll come back.’ I said, ‘Well, just say “I’ll be back.” Keep it simple.'”

Top leaders of CNN’s PR team that oversaw The Atlantic’s disastrous profile of Chris Licht have been fired, TheWrap has confirmed. EVP and global head of communications and marketing Kris Coratti Kelly and head of strategic communications Matt Dornic were among those ousted.According to a source familiar with the decision, the network began cleaning out its communications team Wednesday, just hours after the embattled CEO exited amid plunging ratings and growing discontent within his news staff. The news comes following Licht’s firing on Wednesday.

Despite all the noise The Flash star Ezra Miller created off set in the last year including a burglary charge for stealing liquor from a neighbor’s house in Vermont, among myriad other tabloid headlines, filmmakers who’ve worked with the actor vouch they’re the consummate professional with zero melodrama on set.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Some people only get one chance to run CNN. Amy Entelis is about to embark on her second. The veteran news executive was one of three who took the reins at the Warner Bros. Discovery news outlet when Jeff Zucker, the previous chief, was forced out in February of last year after acknowledging a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, once CNN’s chief marketing officer. Now Entelis will be part of a new trio leading the news giant after the Wednesday departure of former CEO Chris Licht. The challenges facing CNN have not diminished. Entelis will guide CNN’s news operations along with Virginia Moseley, recently named to oversee editorial operations, and Eric Sherling, recently appointed head of U.S. programming. David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named chief operating officer at CNN last week, will oversee business activities. The entire group must keep CNN moving forward as the 2024 presidential election cycle draws near, even as the outlet’s ratings have fallen and its staff has been buffeted by job cuts, programming changes and a seemingly endless cycle of senior executives coming and going.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic The departure of CNN’s Chris Licht, following his turbulent year atop the cable news network, places a pause on one of the great media stories of the decade so far. But even non-media-junkies can appreciate just how strange and how strenuously rocking had been Licht’s time at the network: It played out across screens. The trouble with being the place that invented the 24-hour news cycle is that those hours can come back to bite when you’re the story. There it was in politics, when Donald Trump’s “Town Hall,” with purported rising star Kaitlan Collins, gear-shifted into the first televised rally of the 2024 presidential cycle — with CNN’s air being used to depict an audience of Trump supporters cheering on his jibes. (No less an eminence than Christiane Amanpour, a CNN icon, registered her dissent in public.) There it was on the business pages, with Licht’s overseeing the dismantling of streaming product CNN+, on orders from Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, setting the tone for his tenure. There it was at the Oscars, when Michelle Yeoh used her best actress acceptance speech to rebuke anchor Don Lemon’s bizarre on-air comments about a woman’s “prime” years. There it was in the gossip pages, after a Variety story about Lemon’s comportment toward his female co-anchors on the network’s flagship morning show, and then his ouster, leaked into the tabloids, and never seemed to be countered by any good news about the network. And, finally, there it was at length, with an all-access profile by the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta revealing Licht’s contempt for predecessor Jeff Zucker and the depths of his disdain for and, frankly, confusion about CNN’s mission.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Hemsworth told GQ UK that he’s been thinking about death a lot more lately as his forties quickly approach and in the aftermath of his “Avengers” co-star Jeremy Renner suffering a near-fatal accident in January. Renner was hospitalized with blunt chest trauma, over 30 broken bones and more after his snow plow ran him over at the start of the year. “We were all on our ‘Avengers’ text chain, we were all chatting. And it was wild,” Hemsworth said about the immediate aftermath of Renner’s accident. “None of us really knew how serious it was. I think anything like that, it’s an immediate realization of ‘Wow, any of us can go at any minute…’”

Fox News Digital in a Wednesday report that posted just a couple of hours before Warner Bros. Discovery brass announced the ouster of CEO Chris Licht. David Zaslav handpicked Licht last April to replace Jeff Zucker, the successful but divisive longtime CNN leader ousted after disclosing an affair with one of his direct reports.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The music world has seen countless reinventions, rehabilitations, transformations and image overhauls, but there’s never been anything quite like Prince changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol on his 35th birthday, 30 years ago today. His motivation for doing so was never clearly stated, although many assumed it was a ploy to get out of his contract with his longtime label, Warner Bros. Records. He announced the decision in a statement that read, “It is an unpronounceable symbol whose meaning has not been identified. It’s all about thinking in new ways, tuning in 2 a new free-quency.” Since, obviously, the symbol did not exist on a computer keyboard, Warner Bros. sent floppy discs to media outlets containing a digital rendition of the image, although most gradually landed on referring to him as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” Television outlets were also provided with a brief video featuring the symbol, punctuated with an appropriately iconic-sounding digital clank, similar to the ones film companies used when their logos appeared in film credits.

“We are sending a message that our content doesn’t have to cost a fortune to watch,” said the CEO of fledgling streamer SkyShowtime, who said there could be more bundling in the future.

“We are sending a message that our content doesn’t have to cost a fortune to watch,” said the CEO of fledgling streamer SkyShowtime, who backed David Zaslav’s recent suggestion that rival streamers should bundle together.

K.J. Yossman London publicity firm WDW Entertainment has rebranded as WDM Entertainment and unveiled a new leadership team. The arts and entertainment communications agency, which was co-founded by CEO Amy Dowd in 2017, has welcomed industry veteran Daniel Maynard as managing director while Frankie Mendola and Sarah Wareing have been upped to associate directors. The agency’s new name reflects the surnames of WDM’s revised leadership and shareholders. Dowd and Maynard will also sit on the outfit’s board alongside CFO Evi Dennison. Maynard, who boasts over 20 years experience in media and entertainment in both in-house, consultancy and agency roles, previously worked as VP for communications (television and DTC) at Walt Disney EMEA, where he launched Disney+ across 17 markets, among other initiatives. Maynard has also held senior roles at 21st Century Fox, National Geographic, Freuds, BBC and Microsoft and is a member of the BAFTA television committee.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Spielberg has always been a father figure to Drew Barrymore, but he actually said no when Barrymore asked him to be her real father during the making of their 1982 classic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” Barrymore was only 7 years old at the time. In a new Barrymore profile published by Vulture, Barrymore praised Spielberg as “the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure.” He eventually agreed to be her godfather. Barrymore’s own father, the actor John Drew Barrymore, was an abusive alcoholic. “Talk about someone who was not a careerist,” Barrymore said. “He was like, ‘I will burn this fucking dynasty to the ground.’”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Debra Messing revealed during “The Magic of Will & Grace” panel at The Paley Center for Media that she was instructed to “have big boobs” during her first costume fitting for the NBC sitcom (via People magazine). The Emmy winner pushed back on the suggestion, only to be told that it was coming straight from the top network executive. “The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,” Messing said. “I just wasn’t a fan of like the whole idea of it. I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t need that.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this].’ And I said, ‘If he wants it, then he needs to come here and tell me to my face.'”

After a bit of a rough time at the end of his run of Warner Bros./DC films, it appears Zack Snyder has settled in quite nicely over at Netflix with a deal that allows the filmmaker the freedom to make, basically, whatever he wants. That freedom includes the option of turning his new sci-fi epic, “Rebel Moon,” into a two-part film series.

Today, Outfest announced the Opening and Closing Night gala film selections for the 41st edition of the Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, taking place from July 13 – 23 in Los Angeles, presented by Warner Bros. Discovery and Genesis Motor America. The festival will open with Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, directed by Aitch Alberto, and the 11-day event will close with Chasing Chasing Amy, directed by Sav Rodgers. The Opening Night Gala will screen at the Orpheum Theatre, with the Closing Night Gala screening at The Montalbán Theatre.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker revealed to Empire magazine that he went full “Black Mirror” by asking the artificial intelligence chatbot known as ChatGPT to write an episode of his beloved anthology series. The final results were “shit,” according to Brooker. “I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” Brooker said. “The first thing I did was type ‘generate “Black Mirror” episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is shit. Because all it’s done is look up all the synopses of ‘Black Mirror’ episodes, and sort of mush them together. Brooker added, “If you dig a bit more deeply you go, ‘Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.’ It’s [1970s impressionist] Mike Yarwood — there’s a topical reference.”

There is a suggested line to when a superhero movie relies too much on the fleeting high of fan service and special effects. Andy Muschietti’s “The Flash” blitzes past that line and then proceeds to run out of ideas.